Today will be, I guess, my first ‘normal’ day of life in Luxembourg. I had places to go and responsibilities and bureaucratic hoops and fun night life.
Meusli, yogurt, coffee, some nice art 
Eating breakfast without my orange makeup on
After another pretty restless night, I got up this morning, had some chocolate muesli and raspberry yogurt for breakfast, then headed out for a 10 a.m. American Women’s Club of Luxembourg meeting that I was invited to attend. It was a great way to meet some new people and chat in a relaxed atmosphere. Also there was a lot of great advice for adjusting to culture here.
After that, I went back to my room and worked for a couple of hours until I was ready for lunch. I … fixed a bug… that I alone created… so I guess that’s good, but not what you’re here for. Moving on.
At about 1, I went out for a walk and to find some lunch. I walked back to the old town area because it’s just so nice there, and was pleasantly surrounded by cafes and bistros with delicious, reasonably priced lunch options. Every kind of food from French, to Parisian, to Provençale was represented. This is a bit of an exaggeration, but there is a lot of French food around. Knowing I have dinner plans at 5:30ish, I decided to opt for something a little less heavy. So I didn’t go for a 3-course business lunch at the brasserie. There are other options as well, another Charles-Sandwich shop, Indian food, tons of Italian, from fancy pasta to walk-up pizza windows, and some Greek/Mediterranean food thrown in as well. I stumbled on a little place called Á la Soupe that served soup and sandwiches. The soup of the day for Monday was tomato soup and it just sounded so warm and cozy in the dreary weather.
Giant bowl of tomato soup, tomato-mozzarella sandwich, and a coke, looking outside through the window 
All the same things but looking inside at me
I walked up to the counter and had the menu of the day: small soup of the day + a half sandwich + a drink or dessert. I got the tomato soup, a mozzarella-tomato sandwich, and a coke. Now, I don’t know what gave me this impression, but in my head, I definitely pictured a grilled mozzarella cheese sandwich, like a panini or something to dip into my hot tomato soup. This was entirely in my head because when I read “cheese”, I generally think “melted cheese”. But no, this was just a half baguette with sliced fresh mozzarella and sliced tomatoes and a giant bowl of tomato soup. It was still delicious, of course, but not quite what I pictured for cozy winter day. Then I thought about how much Europeans that I know make fun of American white bread and how they maybe don’t understand grilled cheese and tomato soup and I think they’d like it. But also American white bread is so different from anything here. Even in the grocery store on Saturday, there was a section of breads marked as “American” and it was just not even close. I sat in a little bar stool window seat and watched the world go by as I tried to get through this giant bowl of tomato soup. It was good, but how much soup can one eat?
After lunch, I walked to the Bierger Center, which is the city hall. I am in need of my own identification number for registering for different classes. Having done some research, I knew what documents I needed, but I wasn’t sure if they would be able to give me a number. I took a number in the waiting room and waited, DMV style, to be called back. At the window I went to, the guy was super duper helpful. I gave him all of the paperwork I had and he tried to put it in the computer. When there was a problem, he went and asked around at the other windows and they worked out a way to get me registered with an ID number, but no ID card. The ID card here is also used for health insurance throughout the EU, and you absolutely cannot get a card if you don’t pay any taxes, and neither of us are employed within Luxembourg. Fortunately, all I needed was the ID number, which I now have!! All-in-all this took about an hour. The people working at the Bierger Center greeted me in Luxembourgish each time, but fearing a miscommunication, I asked them (in Luxembourgish) if they would speak English with me, which they did. It seemed too important a document to try out my Luxembourgish. The city hall is quiet and clean (very unlike the DMV), and both of the people I spoke with were very helpful and friendly.
After that, I went back to my room and worked a while longer. I did not start writing my variables in Luxembourgish. I sent some emails. I made a pull request. I typed some things. You know, work stuff. I may have also dozed off for 20 minutes or so.
At 5:30, I met up with a friend, as she picked me up from my house and whisked me away to Kirchberg. She showed me around and pointed out all of the places of interest along the way. We were going to see a movie at 7, so we got to the theater at 5:45 and wandered around to find dinner at the nearby restaurants. Some of them didn’t open until 7, so we ended up with 2 choices: A sports bar or Thai food. I picked the sports bar, as it seemed more like the food would be predictable.
We were seated and I ordered a Franziskaner with a plate of pulled pork fries with cheese and an egg on top. Go big or go home, they say. And it doesn’t look like I’m going home any time soon. And really, either cheese on top or an egg on top will convince me to order most anything. But both? Hard to resist. The beer was, obviously, excellent. Real German hefeweizen on tap is definitely one of my favorite things. Their one American beer on tap was Goose Island. Good for them. The food was good. The pork was nicely cooked, but the bbq sauce was a bit on the sweet side. But it all worked well with the cheese and eggs. Kind of glad I didn’t order the Rösti last night.
Béier 
Fries topped with pulled pork, cheese, and an egg.
Then we made our way to the theater to see “Superjhemp Retörns”. But first, there were previews. Most of the previews were Disney movies, children’s films. There was the new Mary Poppins with Lin Manuel Miranda, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them, etc. The interesting thing is that the previews were all in German. I think it would be super cool to see the new Mary Poppins in German.
This was supremely entertaining. It’s like a movie made in Luxembourg, to make fun of itself. It’s based on a children’s story, so it’s very silly, and the humor seems to derive mostly from Monty-Python-esque very, very dry delivery and (sometimes very complex) multilingual puns. I’m sure everyone is dying to go see it, so I won’t write too many spoilers, but some of my favorite parts were a scene where everyone is fleeing Luxembourg (Luxusbourg in the film) because of the supervillain’s destruction. As they are stuck in gridlock, the military is passing out a box to every Luxembourger of things they need to have to feel like home, and it’s a gold box full of fancy/famous Luxembourgish foods, cheeses, cremant. Kind of poking fun both of how much people like these things but also how wealthy the country is that they’re passing out gold boxes of cheese and wine as people flee impending doom. It has layers.
The film is in Luxembourgish, but has French subtitles. There were several scenes with some government guys, who often spoke French with one another, at which point, the subtitles would change to Luxembourgish when the characters were speaking French. Sometimes it would take me a few seconds to realize I had no idea what they were saying and read the subtitles.
Like many children’s films, though, this one had some brutally dark undertones. The story is a silly take on a superhero who falls in love with the beautiful news anchor/reporter. Obviously she does not know his secret identity. But the twist here is that the superhero disappears one day, never to return. He gives up being a superhero to pretend to be a normal person and marries her, gets a job in government middle management, and they have a teenage son now. But she’s somewhat famous for having been the love interest of this superhero, and when anyone asks her about her life now, she answers with a very dismissive ‘oh, my husband, he’s totally normal. I have a normal life. He’s not even a little bit super.’ Which, you know, ouch. The husband is hearing this all the time. But then…. When the crown jewels are stolen by the super villain, the Superjhemp has to come back and save the day. So the now older, fatter husband, works out, (tons of glamour shots of the beauty of Luxembourg as they show him running through the woods and doing pushups on rooftops), and returns as the Superjhemp. He meets her and she still doesn’t know that it’s her husband, so she tells him that he left for too long and she has a husband now. But in the moment he kisses her. She then goes home, lies to her husband about kissing the guy, then he sees it on the news. Anyway, at one point, she is frustrated with her normal life and why her husband is never there when shit goes down, so she is considering leaving him for the Superjhemp… who is him. He knows she’s going to leave him for the more adventurous guy, even though he’s spent 20 years with her building a home and making a family. The Superjhemp rejects her, saying he has a wife and family now (??), and only after that does she find out that they’re the same person. But does he ever go like “hold on, you were about to leave me after all we’ve done together?!?” They just completely gloss it over and everyone is happy in the end. But seriously, lady, you just signed up for years of marriage counseling. She’s supposed to be the beautiful love interest and he’s this schlumpy dude who’s just happy to have her, but literally everything she does is stone cold. So aside from the relationship dynamics, 2 thumbs up on the dry, witty humor and beautiful but mostly extraneous shots of all of the palaces of Luxembourg.
